Slimline seats

[mattius]

Heya im trying to hunt down some seats which will fit into my triumph spitfire race car, problem is the shoulder width is very tight against the side of the pillar.

I have mx5 seats in it at the moment, but am needing seats with harness holes and which i can race in aswell as being comfy on short journeys on the road.

At the moment all i can find is either caterham kevlar seats or corbeau sprint, problem is both will break the bank.

Any ideas?

[terence]

Base mounted Glass shell seats should go in.

[mattius]

yeah the problem is the cost of them is silly.

[Chris Y]

Sorry, but if you can't afford a sub-£200 seat, you won't be able to afford to race!

[BertMk2]

Motordrive? Can't remember how much the seats were exactly but speak to them on the phone and they're usually good for a deal on price. They do narrow fit seats so may have something to suit you.

www.motordrive.com

[Farbrooke]

Try www.ridgardseats.co.uk

[mattius]

The point is they are not sub 200 quid seats, everyone i have come accross is over 300, and no i cant afford to race at the moment cause im building up the car.

thanks to those that helped.

[Chris Y]

Yes, there are a lot of seats at the £300 mark, but there are many 'starter' seats under £200.

This is in Demon Tweeks - not reknown for being the cheapest: http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/produc...code=S/S815BLK

I had something similar in my Mini, which had the same problem as you describe - a wider seat would have fouled on the main roll hoop.

[mattius]

Yes but those cheaper seats will not fit due to the tightness in the shoulder region is even worse than that of the mini, the only seats that will fit at the moment are the kevlar caterham or the corbeaus as i mentioned, both of which are silly expensive, im trying to find something same size but cheaper in the region of those cheaper seats you mentioned.

hence the whole point in this thread, it wasnt to find cheap seats, its to find seats which will fit in the tightness constraints of the body.

[MGDavid]

Try the OMP Eco - it fits in my MG Midget which can't be any larger than a Spit surely? AND it was under £100 2 years ago, AND it's FIA legal....
racing on a tight budget? - easy, talk to Midgetman and me :-)

[R59]

I bought an OMP FIA seat for my Belmont Thundersaloon. Bolted it in on the existing sliders, and then couldn't shut the door! Doh! Back to the old Sparco!
The OMP will come in for something I'm sure!

[AndyV]

Seats in a Spitfire are a pain as space is tight between the centre chassis rails and the sills, be prepared to do some measuring and after that even modifying the car (lump hammer on prop tunnel) and seat (bash/bend in shoulder pad) to get them to fit together. GRP seats don’t bend to fit very easy and Steel framed seats don’t cut very easy, so overall it just ain’t that easy. However there are a fair few racing Spits out there so there are seats to match. I think the newest seat I’ve seen in a Spit is Mik Davis’s car and you could contact him through his blog on the Club Triumph Website http://club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/b...gi?blog=493433

Another consideration is height, when sat in the car your helmet needs to be 50mm below the top of the cage/rollbar. If you have a cage that fits under a Spit roof and you are taller than Snow White’s 7 best friends, then you need to consider how high you mount the seat. I am 5ft 10 and have lowered my floor by 2 inches, my GRP seat (old Corbeau Monza) sits directly on the lowered floor with no cushioning (I feel straddled kerbs intimately) and I only just make the height standard with tight shoulder straps. Note, If you keep the roof on whilst racing then it is less noticeable.

If you don’t need FIA standard, Kirkey seats do a wide variety of narrow versions. Demon Tweeks again: http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/produc...=B255&x=18&y=6
Just pick one in you price range.

Andy

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by AndyV

... modifying the car (lump hammer on prop tunnel) and seat (bash/bend in shoulder pad) to get them to fit together. GRP seats don’t bend to fit very easy and Steel framed seats don’t cut very easy,

Modifying the seat? Not something I'd even consider to be honest, modifying a seat doesn't seem like a great plan to me. Also wouldn't fancy my chances at scrutineering with a "modified" seat.

[Mik]

Originally Posted by AndyV

I think the newest seat I’ve seen in a Spit is Mik Davis’s car and you could contact him through his blog on the Club Triumph Website

No need, I'm here anyway

My car has a Cobra Imola seat in it. It was about the narrowest one in the Demon Tweeks catalogue when I bought it in 2003 and if I remember correctly, has FIA approval. I still had to "adjust" the inner door skin with a hammer to make the shoulder support fit. I also had to modify the transmission tunnel to widen the seat well at the rear where it curves in. Like AndyV I've also had to take 2 inches out of the floor to get my head under the cage.

My seat is side mounted (most don't have a base mount option it seems) and I had to make some custom mounting brackets as well as the manufacturers ones added several inches to the width of the seat base.

You're welcome to have a poke around the car and see how my seat fits if you are at one of the meetings I'm racing at this year although that's unlikely to be any time before June at the moment.

[mattius]

thanks mik, i dont like the idea of modifying the bodywork,


will i get through the scruitineers with caterham style fibreglass seats.

[Mik]

Don't know. The question would be whether they meet the regulations for whatever form of racing you're planning on doing. For UK club events that would generally mean MSA regulations.

[jpivey]

I put a fibreglass seat in a race midget that i bought of ebay had no problems with it, go to www.mvsracing.co.uk they make and sell slim line seats.

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by jpivey

I put a fibreglass seat in a race midget that i bought of ebay had no problems with it, go to www.mvsracing.co.uk they make and sell slim line seats.

John Paul, welcome to Ten Tenths.....